Blackhawks tie series with overtime victory

With their Stanley Cup hopes hinging on a victory in Game 4, the Chicago Blackhawks gave it their best shot on Wednesday night, and it paid off in a 6-5 overtime win over the Bruins.

The victory was hard-fought with the winning goal by Brent Seabrook leveling the series at 2-2.

Less than a minute after the Blackhawks had taken their third lead of the night, defenseman Johnny Boychuk blasted a 45-foot slap shot past goalie Corey Crawford with 7:46 left in the third period to pull the Bruins into a 5-5 tie at TD Garden and send the teams into overtime for the third time in four games in this Stanley Cup Finals series.

Patrick Sharp had flipped a short rebound shot past goalie Tuukka Rask with 8:41 left in the third period to give Chicago a 5-4 advantage in a game that was played at a feverish pace over the last two periods.

Patrice Bergeron scored his second goal of the game at 2:05 of the third period to give the Bruins a 4-4 tie. Jaromir Jagr controlled the puck along the right boards and got a pass to Bergeron at the top of the right circle, and the Bruins center fired a lightning-quick one-timer past Crawford, who might have been surprised at the quickness of the blast.

After three games of frustration, the Blackhawks finally scored on a power play — only it was Boston's.

Ninety seconds after Johnny Oduya went off for interference, rookie Brandon Saad stole the puck from Tyler Seguin and broke away for a two-on-one rush with Michal Handzus, who finished off the play with a snap shot over Rask's stick side at 6:48. It was the third time in the series Chicago scored first.

But the Bruins got that one back. After Duncan Keith went off for hooking Rich Peverley on a two-on-one rush by Boston, and Torey Krug hit a post on a blast from the left point midway through the power play, the Bruins got even with 2 seconds left on the man advantage.

Andrew Ference made a nice play at the left point to prevent a Chicago clear. A few seconds later, Saad was going after a loose puck to clear it out of the zone, but he fell down. Peverley hopped on the mistake, moved in on Crawford, and wristed one over the goalie's glove hand at 14:43 to make it 1-1.

In the second period, though, things got crazy — very crazy — with five goals scored.First, Chicago captain Jonathan Toews reached in from just to the right of the net to deflect Michael Rozsival's shot from the right point over Rask's stick at 6:33 to give the Hawks a 2-1 lead, and a couple of minutes later, Patrick Kane backhanded the rebound of a Bryan Bickell shot over a diving Rask to make it 3-1 at 8:41.

The Bruins immediately took their timeout as coach Claude Julien tried to settle them down, and it seemed to work.

The score stayed that way for a while, but Lucic got the B's within a goal when he put a quick rebound over Crawford's glove hand after a Zdeno Chara shot to make it 3-2 with 5:17 left in the period.

But less than a minute later, the Blackhawks finished off another two-on-one rush to make it 4-2 with 4:25 remaining. Marcus Kruger got the goal, taking a pass from Michael Frolik and, after Rask made a skate save on his first shot at the right post, stopping and poking his own rebound in to make it a two-goal cushion again.

But back came Boston. With the Bruins on a power play, Chara took a shot from just inside the blue line but right in the middle of the ice. It went over the net, off the glass, then bounced back over the net again and landed right smack in front of Crawford, where Bergeron whacked it in immediately to make it 4-3 with 2:38 left in the period.

After that, the Bruins put some incredible pressure on Crawford in an effort to tie it up. The guy who blows that infernal foghorn after a goal even got fooled on one play with about a minute left when Peverley passed it in front to Chris Kelly, whose redirection hit the left post and slid wide. The horn went off briefly, but play continued.

Jagr closed the period with a chance in the slot, but Crawford made the save with two seconds left.